that's the question john boehner, the speaker of the house has. listen to him. >> this week we made a good faith offer to avert the fiscal crisis and that offer included significant spending cuts and reforms and it included additional revenue. frankly, it was the balanced approach that the president has been asking for. now we need a response from the white house. we can't sit here and negotiate with ourselves. and if the president doesn't agree with our proposal and our outline, i think he's got an obligation to send one to the congress. a plan that can pass both chambers of congress. if you look at the plans that the white house has talked about thus far, they couldn't pass either house of the congress. >> brian: hasn't because it's been presented before. here is one thing the president i think is banking on because he's playing his cards and it's a strategic approach. he's saying if i can divide boehner and the other house republicans, i could break this thing wide open and i could get what i need. and it turns out of all places, the "new york